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| August 24, 2005 | Wednesday | Rajab 18, 1426 |
‘Travel advisory not deterring businessmen’
LONDON, Aug 23: The British travel advisory for Pakistan has not deterred businessmen from visiting the country which is open for investment with its investor-friendly environment, according to Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Dr Maleeha Lodhi.
Pakistan’s tourist sites were open to tourists and recently there had been many expeditions to mountain peaks, she said in a TV interview here.
Answering a question, she said Pakistan’s economy had achieved a growth rate of 8.4 per cent. But the real challenge was to translate it into an improvement in the standard of life of the people, she added.
“The country has gone past in a strategic transition by creating an infrastructure for political and economic stability. It is well on the road to democratic governance which has seen a larger representation of women,” she said.
Answering a question on terrorism, she said Pakistan’s record, both in combating terrorism and its experience as a victim of terrorism, had not been fully recognized by the Western media.
She said the challenge was to explain why the region for the last several years had seen the challenge of militancy which largely was a result of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Referring to the July 7 attacks in London, she said the main worry of the British Muslims was that they should not be stigmatized or maligned for the actions of a few people.
The UK media had not told the entire story and it needed to have more comprehensive approach to understand some of the issues, she said. “So the challenge is to engage with the media and to ensure that it should have a more balanced view of what is happening in our region as well as… in their own country.”
On President Musharraf’s latest statement on terrorism and the way it could be tackled, she said he had always said a vast majority of Pakistanis was moderate. “But this time the president has also distinguished between terrorists to be dealt with law enforcement and extremism which reflects a state of mind. This requires an approach to win hearts and minds and address the underlying factors which create radicalization and extremist views in the society.”
She said the president was advocating a broad-based, multi- faceted and multi-dimensional approach to deal with extremism, not just in their society but elsewhere also.
About the introduction of machine-readable passports for British Pakistanis, Ms Lodhi said that required steps were being taken in this regard and once the process was completed, the high commission would start issuing such passports. —-APP
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